Mining-machine.



N. I]. LEVIN.

MINING MACHINE,

APPLICATION men SEPT. 20. 191 1.

1,244,871. r Patented 0@1;.30,1917.

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MINING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 20, 1911.

v1,244,8'7'1. Patented Oct. 30,1917.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NILS DAVID LEVIN, 0F COLUMBUS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE JEFFREY MANUFAC-TUBING COMPANY, A CORIPORATION OF OHIO.

MINING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 30, 1917.

Original application filed September 30, 1907, Serial No. 395,061.Divided and this application filed September To all whom it may concern:V

Be it known that I, NILs D. LEVIN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Mining-Machines, ofwhich the following is a specification, reference being had therein tothe accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to mining machines and particularly to those .ofthe class in which the cutting apparatus and the power devices are movedbodily along the face of the material to be out while the cutting workis progressing.

One of the objects of the present improvements is to provide a flexiblefeeding device and a retarding or holding device adapted to be operatedand controlled independently of each other, so that the flexible'feeding device, (cable, chain or the like) is capable of being usedindependently of the retarding device to load, and unload the machineand move it about on the; floor of the mine, while at the same time thefeeding and retarding devices are adapted to cooperate with each otherto automatically 'hold the machine to its work during the un--dercutting of the coal.

A further object of the invention is the provision in a machine of thecharacter referred to of guiding or alining devices which operate byopposing a frictional resistance to the advance of the outer end of themachine. A further object of the invention is the provision offrictional retarding devices such as last referred to adapted toautomatically vary the frictional resistance to the advance of the outerend of the machine in proportion tothe resistance en' countered by thecutters.

A further object is the provision in a machine of the character referredto of feeding and retarding devices adapted to permit the machine inoperation to occupy various angular positions in relation to the face ofthe coal, while the retarding devices are adapted to resist the angularswinging movement of the machine beyond a predetermined limit.

Another object of my invention is to provide means for adjusting themachine to different angular positions relative to hori zontal planes,whereby it is capable of be Serial No. 650,334.

ing adjusted either around horizontal lines longitudinally of themachine or around horizontal lines which are transverse thereto, thuspermitting cuts in the coal to be made in either of various planes andpermitting the machine to be so manipulated that obstructions in thepath of the cutting apparatus can he escaped without stopping thecutting.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a plan view of a machine embodying my improvements, the topcover plate of the main frame being removed for the purpose of showingthe mechanism under it.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the Referring in detail to theconstruction shown, the main structure of the. machine comprises a boxor casing part 1 having bottom, side and end plates and a removable topplate 2. 3 is an interior frame structure shown as an integral casting,though not necessarily so formed, and rigidly secured as by bolts 4 tothe casing part 1 of the frame. A cutter bar or frame 5 projects fromthe inner end of the main frame and carries a suitable endless cutterchain 6. This cutter chain passes around and is driven by a sprocketwheel 7 which is fast on the lower endof a shaft 8, which is rotatablymounted in the frame structure 3. v The machine can be driven by anysuitable kind of motor, but I have indicated an electric motor 9 with avertically arranged shaft. This is indicated conventionally, but theconstructing engineer will understand that a motor of anysuitable'shape, size and power can be employed. 10 is a pinion carriedby the motor shaft and this. pinion meshes with a large gear wheel 11which is sleeved upon the upper end of the shaft 8. 12 is a disk keyedto the shaft 8 and formed with a shoulder or tooth adapted to be emcutters.

gaged by a pivoted hook or dog 13 carried by the gear 11. The do 13 canbe made of cast iron or other frangi le material so that it will breakin case the machine is overloaded and thus serve as a safety device,preventing breakage of other more important arts of the machine.

14 1s a winding drum which is fast on a vertical shaft 15, rotatablymounted in the frame structure 3. 16 is a rope "or cable having one endsecured to the winding drum and adapted to be wound thereon, andextending thence through a suitable passageway in the machine frame orbed, and the other end being adapted to be made fast at a point on thefront or advance side of the machine as by a jack 17. This winding drumis driven from the motor 9 by the following train of gearing. 18 is aratchet wheel fast on the shaft 15, and 19 is a swinging arm whichcarries a spring pressed pawl 20 adapted to engage the teeth of theratchet wheel 18. A vertical shaft 21 which is rotatably mounted in theframe 3 carries at its upper end. a spur gear 22 which meshes with andis driven by a ear 23 fast on the hub of the gear 11. T e shaft 21 alsocarries an eccentric 24 arranged to drive an eccentric rod 25 whichextends through the free end of the arm 19. The eccentric rod can beformed with a shoulder adapted to press against one side of the arm 19,and the end of the eccentric rodcarries a nut .26 between which and thepawl arm 19 is.arranged a coiled sprin 27.

It will now be seen that w en the motor 'is in operation its rotation istransmitted by gears 10 and 11 to the shaft 8 thence: by gears 22 and 23to the shaft 21. The rotation of the shaft 21 causes the reciprocationof the eccentric'rod 25 and this reciprocatory movement of the-rodcauses the oscillato swinging of the pawl arm 19. It will e seen thatthe forcewhich causes the workingstroke of the pawl arm 19 istransmitted through the s ring 27 and thus the amount of rotation o theratchet wheel and winding drum and the consequent advance of the machineincident to the winding in of the feeding cable 16, is automaticallyproportioned to the resistance met by the That is, when the coal is hardor when hard foreign substances therein are encountered so that thereaction on the cutter frame is great, the transmission spring 27 iscorrespondingly compressed and the amountof the forward feed-of themachine correspondingly diminished so that the cutters are givenopportunit to cut their way throughthe hard spot. en this has beenaccomplished and softer material is encountered, the compressin of thespring during the working stroke 0 the pawl arm will be less and themachine will then be fed forward at a correspondingly faster speed. It

'ing of the machine.

will be understood that suitable means, such, for example, as arelatively stationary pawl, is to be provided to normally preventretrograde movement of the winding drum. Such a pawl is indicated at 18"and can be supported from the under side of the upper plate 3* of theframe structure 3.

When the machine is drawn forward by the cable 16 along the faceof thecoal, the outer end of the main frame tends to swing forward on accountof the reaction of the coal against the cutters. To oppose this tendencyand hold the machine at a uitable angle to the face of the coal as theundercutting proceeds, I provide the following devices. 28 is a rod,beam or rail, which may, for example, be an ordinary I-beam of suitableweight and dimensions and which is adapted to be disposed on the floorof the mine adjacent the outer end of the machine and secured againstendwise'move; ment. Any suitable means such as a jack 29 can be employedto thus secure the rail. It is not essential that the rail be heldagainst lateral movement so long as it is not free to move in themachines general direction of movement. Indeed, in some cases, I preferto secure the rail at one point only so that it will be free to swingsomewhat and not interfere with, the free work- This rod or rail can beof any suitable shape in cross section and of any suitable length. Railsor rods for meetin a more or less similar purpose have been heretoforeknown in the art, and they have been made sometimes flat, sometimescircular in section, sometimes in long sections; and in others, ofshorter lengths. And-I wish it to be understood that any of the knowndevices of this class can be ada ted for use in conjunction with my mecanism. I prefer to employ rails or bars of suitable lengths of thestandard cross sectional shape of the track rails used in mining work,so that they can be readily obtained from the general stock of materialsat the mine and can be quickly replaced in the event that renewal isrequired. On the outer end of the frame 1 of the machine is secured orformed a bracket 30 which is formed on its under side with jaws adaptedto pass around the upper flange or head of the rail and engage the webthereof. The distance between the jaws of the bracket 30 is greater thanthe thickness of the web of the rail, and the faces of the iaws areformed parallel to each other. Thus the machine can swing or angle to alimited extent without the jaws engagin the rail, but any swinging ofthe machine beyond such limitations is prevented or o posed by aclutch-like engagement of the aws with the web of the rail. In theconstruction shown, the faces of the clutch jaws are dis tudinal axisof. the machine is at substantially right angles to the face of the coaland the rail and yet so as to permit the to meetyarious conditions ofcutt The interaction of the bracket 30 an. rail 28 will be understoodfrom an inspection of Figs. 3, 5 and 6; Referring to Fig. 5, it

will be seen'that the corners30 and 30 of the bracket jaws clutch therail when the outer end of the machine swings forward to the limitingposition, and that the outerend of the machinecan swing rearward (or theinner end forward), as in Fig. 6, to a considerable ex! ntbefore thecorners 30 and 30 will come into clutching engagement with the rail.This capacity of the machine for angling is one of the characterizingfeatures of my invention, as will be pointed out more fully inconnection with the operation of the machine. v

If asection'of track rail is used as the rod 28 and if the bracket 30 isformed as herein shown, it will be understood that the parts of theretarding mechanism can readily be assembled by passing the rod or. rail28 endwise through the bracket. The passageway for the rail through thebracket should be sufliciently wide to permit the machine to be angled,as setforth, above, and the bracket 'should have suitable verticaldimensions to perniitthe required vertical adjustment of the machine bymeans of the devices to be described. If a bar of the section of thetrack rail be employed, and if the jaws of the bracket 30 are spaced asherein shown, the fitting of the parts of the retarding mechanism can bereadily accomplished by first passing the rail a short distance endwisethrough the bracket. But, in this respect also, I do not wish to belimited to any exact details so long as the essential features of. thispart of the invention are maintained.

The passageway for the rail through the bracket should be sufficientlywide to permit the machine to be angled, within limits, in relation .tothe bar or rail so as to get a stron bite of the bracket jaws upon it-It shoul also have sufiicient vertical dimensions to permit the requiredvertical adjustment of the machine by means of. the devices to bedescribed. I

It will be seen that theclamping part on the machine, is, at its workingpoints, very short, that is to say the jaws of the bracket are short inrelation to the length of the I part which exerts leverage upon them,

binding action is powerful and quickly be- A comes effective as soon asthe machine moves any material distance out of its predeterminedangularrelationship to the coal face. Under normal circumstances, and while themachine is in the predetermined angular position, the clam orclutch parton the machine is practically disengaged entirely from the elongatedstationary element of the retarder. Thisretarding mechanism is. I

quite different from those heretofore proposed which had elongated baselines of union between themachine and the rail element, along whichlines therewere a series of rotating anti-friction rollers. In those,the proposition was to use the railand the outer end of the machine asan alining device, and the counterpart elements were normally retainedconstantly in close engagement over the long base of connection. In myconstruction, the purpose 15 not to maintain a constantly rigidconnection between the-counterpart elements of the retarder; the rearend of the machine. being normally free or disengaged while in itsproper working angle, but instantly caught and checked against anytendency to move beyond a certalniangula-r limit. I

The machine can be supported from the floor of the mine in any suitablemanner but I have shown a shoe 31 under the inner end of the machine,and at the outer end of the machine I provide a pair of rollers 3232which are adapted to ride upon the rail 28. These rollers are mounted ona bar 33 which in turn is mounted upon a block 34 which is slidablymounted in guides 35 on the ma chine frame. A hand screw 36, which isswiveled to the block 34' and threadedthrough a bracket 37 on the frameserves to The operation of my improved mining machine will be readilyunderstood from the foregoing description. When the machine is broughtinto a room where the coal is to be undercut, it is first placed at theface of the coal near one of the ribs or side walls where the enteringor sumping cut is' to be made. It has been customary in machines of thischaracter to make the sumping cut by anchoring the feed chain or cableat a point adj a'cent the face of the coal and near the out ter frame sothat the rotation of the winding drum will cause the cutterframe to beforced endwise against the eoal,' the main frame of the machine .beingin the meantime guided and held against swinging. 7

After the sumpin out has been made, the feed cable is carri alon theface. and anchored as indicated in Fig. .6. The I beam or rail is thenslipped through the jaws of the retarding bracket and is then secured byone or more acks upon the floor of the mine. On the motor now beingstarted, the cutters are driven and the winding drum 14 turned so as todraw in upon the feed cable 16. As the machine advances along the faceof the coal, the outer end of the frame tends ordinarily to swingforward in advance of the inner end because of the resistance which thecoal offers to the cutters. But when the outer end of the frame swingsforward to a certain point, the jaws of the bracket 30 clutch ,the rail28 and by the frictional resistance thus produced counteract thetendency of the outer end of the machine to swing forward. The greaterthe resistance which the coal ofi'ers to the cutters and the greater theconsequent tendency of the outer end of the machine to swing forward,the greater is the frictional resistance which results and thusautomatically the longitudinal axis of the machine is maintained atsubstantially the same angle to the face of the coal as the undercuttingproceeds.

In the cutting of coal, impurities are frequently encountered whichconstitute serious obstacles, that is to say, obstacles which it is notpractical to cut through because of their extreme hardness. In suchcases if the vertical dimensions of the obstacles are not great, it maybe possible to direct the cutters over or under the obstruction, andsuch a manipulation of my improved machine is facilitated by theprovision of the adjusting screws 36 and 38 by means of which the outerend of the machine can be bodilyraised and lowered and by means of whichthe machine can be tipped around its longitudinal axisso as to directthe cutters upward or downward. Furthermore, by reason of the capacityof my improved machine for angling forward and backward in the mannerpreviously described, the cutters can be caused to attack the coal atvarious angles. Sometimes an obstruction in the form of a relativelysmall sulfur ball is encountered and by inclining the inner end of themachine forward, as indicated in Fig. 6, it is possible to cut more orless back of the sulfur ball and thus make it easier for the cutters toloosen and dislodge the ball so that it can be removed from the kerf.When such handling of the machine is desirable, the cutters can be swungto the desired angle through the action of the feed devices by settin ajack or the like in front of ,the outer en of the machine so as to stopthe advance of said outer end, while the inner end is sw'ung forward.Such angling of the machine forward or backwardand it may beaccomplished in a variety of ways as will be understood by practicalmachine operators-4s rendered possible by reason of the peculiarcooperative relation between the parts of the retarding mechanism.

. the ma in this case would be measured on the line from these jaws tothe cutting apparatus. Consequently, the clamping bite or binding actionof the jaws is very powerful. This retarding mechanism is quitedifferent from those heretofore proposed which had elongated base linesof union between the machine and the rail element, along which linesthere were a series of rotating antifriction rollers. In those, theproposition was to use the rail and theouter end of the machine as analining device, and the counterpart elements were normally retainedconstantly in close engagement over the long. base of connection. In myconstruction, the purpose is not to maintain a constantly rigidconnection between the counterpart elements of the retarder, the outerend of the machine, on the contrary, being free to take a variety ofpositions relative to the inner end, but being instantly caught andchecked against any tendency to move beyond a certain angular limit.

The present application is a division of my earlier application, Ser.No. 395,061 filed September 30, 1907.

What I claim is:

1. In a mining machine, the combination of a main frame arranged toswing horizontally forward and back when in operation, power drivencutting apparatus projecting from the inner end thereof, power devicesfor feeding the machine along the face of the coal, and means forretarding the outer end of the machine comprising a stationary partsecured against movement in the direction of the machines advance and acompanion element on the machine arranged to be moved by the frame, whenswinging as aforesaid, toward and from a position where it tends torigidly engage said stationary part, but to loosely engage with thelatter when the frame is at a predetermined angle.

2. In a mining machine, the combination of a main frame arranged toswing horizontally forward and back when in operation, power drivencutting apparatus projecting from the inner end of the maln frame, a

flexible draft device acting on the inner end of the main frame topropel the machine along the face of the coal, and means acting on theouter end of the machine for limiting its swinging movement, said lastmentioned means comprising an elongated device secured aglainst movementin the direction of c ines advance, and a device on the machine engagingwith said elongated device and arranged to be moved when the frameswings as aforesaid, to and from a position where it tends to engagerigidly naeasn with said device but adapted to move along the latterfreely when the frame is at a predetermined angle.

3. In a mining machine, the combination of a main frame arranged toswing horizontally forward and back when in operation, power driven.cuttingv apparatus projecting from the inner end thereof, power devicesfor feeding the machine along tally forward and back when in operation,

power driven cutting apparatus projecting from the inner end thereof,power devices for feeding the machine along the face of the coal adaptedto permit the machine to swing as aforesaid to various angular positionsin relation to the coal face, and means for retarding the outer end ofthe machine comprising a rod extending approximately parallel to theface of the coal adjacent the outer end of the machine, means forsecuring the rod against movement in the direction of the machinesadvance, and a clutchlike device on the machine adapted to freely slidealong the rod when the machine is in a predetermined angular positionand to be moved by the frame, when swinging as aforesaid, to and from aposition where it tends to rigidly engage said rod.

5. In a mining machine, the combination of a main frame, ower drivencutting apparatus projecting rom the inner end thereof, power devicesfor feeding the machine along the face of the coal, means for retardingthe outer end of the machine comprising a rail secured against movementin the direction l the face of the coal, and means for retarding theouter of the machines movement, a friction device on the machine adaptedto engage said rail, andmeans for directing the cutting apparatus up ordown comprising a plurality of wheels carried by the machine frame inposition to ride upon the said rail, and means for adjusting one of saidwheels upward and downward relative to the machine.

6. The combination of a main frame arranged to sw'ing'horizontallyforward and back when in operation, a forwardly projecting cutterapparatus, a means for feeding the frame along the face of the coal, aretarding. means comprising a stationary element approximately parallelto the path of the machine, a companion element on the machine adaptedto move longitudinally of the stationary retarding element when themachine is in a predetermined angular position and to 'be moved by theframe, when the latter swings, as aforesaid, to and from a positionWhere it tends to rigidly engage the stationary element.

In a mining machine, the combination of a main frame arranged to swinghorizontally forward and back when in operation, power driven cuttingapparatus projecting from the inner end thereof, power devices forfeeding the machine along the face of the coal, means for retarding theouter end of the machine comprising a rail secured against movementlongitudinally, an element carried by the frame and engaging said railand having limited verticalmovement, said element being adapted topermit horizontal swinging of the main frame independently of the rail,a bar Vertically adjustable on the frame, wheels carried thereby and inengagament with the upper surface of the rail, and means for verticallyadjusting one end of the said bar.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

NILS DAVID LEVIN. Witnesses:

DUDLEY T. FISHER, E. P. SNIVELY.

